it was put at once and carried, even members of the Wayne delegation voting for it. It was a sorry joke for them, however, as the bill was immediately sent to the senate. All the aspiring villages now became alarmed, and many of the delegates who had voted for the measure would gladly have recalled their votes. At once a powerful lobby surrounded the senate, and every county and village desiring the capital presented propositions for its location. Land, money and buildings were offered as inducements. It is probable that "quail parties" also flourished, although I find no mention of them in the records. Every known tactic was used to have the bill amended and then returned to the house in order that it might be killed off, but all of no avail, the bill passed the senate, was presented to the governor, and, receiving his signature, became a law.

The measure came from the house on February 13 and was before the senate until March 9, when it passed. Almost the entire of the 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th of March were taken up with the measure, and on the 8th the sen ate took fifty one votes upon the question in some form.

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The arguments used against its location in the township of Lansing, then truly a "howling wilderness," is quite neatly summarized by Mr. Bishop, to whom I am again indebted. "What, shall we take the capital from a large and beautiful city * and stick it down in the woods and mud on the banks of Grand river, amid choking miasma * * * where the howl of wolves and the hissing of massaugas, and groans of bull frogs resound to the hammer of the woodpecker and the solitary note of the nightingale?"" Undoubtedly this is but a fair picture of the situation as it appeared to the legislator's mind. One disgusted member offered a new section to the supplemental bill above referred to, which reads as follows: "The sum of one hundred dollars is hereby appropriated out of the five mill tax to erect guide boards to direct the members of the next legislature to the seat of government of the state of Michigan, to be expended under the direction of the said commissioners." The bill also provided for an appropriation of ten thousand dollars with which to erect temporary buildings. This was evidently considered a piece of great extravagance by some, as a motion was made to amend the title by adding thereto, and to absorb the building fund in temporary buildings, thereby preparing the way for taxing the people to erect permanent state buildings."

The supplemental act provided for three commissioners to be appointed by the governor, to select a site, giving them the privilege of locating on school

1 Pioneer Collections, supra.

? House Journal, 1847, p. 454.

House Journal, 1847, p. 455.

section 16, or accepting some proposition which might be offered to them, and locating on some other section in the township. The commissioners examined sections 5, 9, 10, 13, 20, and 21, and finally selected section 16. Various propositions were made to them, those of James Seymour, to locate on section 9, now the north part of the city, and that of the Townsends, to locate on section 21, now the south part of the city, were the most prominent. The most interesting reading is, perhaps, the proposition of Mr. H. B. Lathrop, of Jackson. Speaking of the Townsend proposition he says, "One of the worst, in point of health, that could be adopted. You have dead water on each side of you, and agues and chill fevers would be as sure to the state officers and their assistants as would be their salaries."

Mr. Seymour's proposition was in renewal of one made to the legislature and contains one phrase of prophecy which is worth considering here. Speaking of the Grand river valley, he says, "It will soon become one of the richest and most populous parts of the state.",

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The report of the committee sets out fully their reasons for choosing section 16, and they seem worth repeating now. They say we "found it, in the main, an excellent section of land, exceedingly well timbered, and its soil of a very superior quality for the purpose of cultivation. Its centre is very handsomely elevated above the river, and is nearly equidistant from the two water powers in sections 9 and 21, at which points it is probable that extensive improvements will be made and, at no distant day, thriving villages spring up.'

993

The naming of the proposed village was the source of considerable sport in the legislature, and it was only after some contest that the name of Michigan was finally chosen. The bill, as it passed the house contained the name of " Aloda" which was changed by the senate to "Michigan." Among the names presented in the house are: Houghton, Bushridge, Harrison, Kinderhook, El Dorado, Thorbush, Huron, Marcellus, and the member who wanted sign boards erected proposed Swedenborg. In the senate the names proposed were those of eminent men of the times or of the revolution: Franklin, Washington, Lafayette, Cass, Tyler, Fulton and Wright being some of those proposed.

Frequently people are born with names not exactly to their liking as they grow older, or perhaps a whim of the parent provides one with a name that truly becomes burdensome to its owner. The village of "Michigan," we may suppose, became tired of its name and wanted a new one, for early in the

1 Joint Documents, 1848. Report of commissioners.

? Joint Documents, 1848. Report of commissioners. Report of commissioners, supra.

session of 1848, the first session held at the new capital, bills were introduced in both senate and house to change the name of the village. The bills were introduced in January but it was not until April that the name was finally chosen. It would seem that so simple a matter as changing one's name ought not to cause any difficulty, but this inoffensive looking measure was the source of much trouble. The house wanted the name "Lansing," the senate wanted it "Okeema," and each amended the bill of the other to that effect. This brought conference committees who would not agree. The committees would report, be discharged and new ones appointed. Finally a committee was found which could agree and they reported the name "Algoma." This did not suit the members of the respective bodies, for we find several motions to strike out the name "Algoma" and insert others. Among these names were Glen, Lewis, Cass, Dallas, LaSalle, and Huron. One member proposed to burden the young village with the name of Pewanogawink, a name at that time belonging to a township in Genesee county. After much reporting and voting the senate finally agreed to concur in the name proposed by the house, "Lansing," and April 3, 1848, the governor approved the

act.

There are undoubtedly many other interesting items connected with the birth of our present city which might be found with sufficient search among old files and by conversation with the oldest inhabitant. I trust, however, enough has been presented to interest you for a time, and perhaps awaken some sleeping recollections not recorded in official documents, but nevertheless of equal or greater interest, and of which I hope we may have the benefit.

BENJAMIN OLIVER WILLIAMS-THE FOUNDER OF OWOSSO.

[From the Owosso Weekly Press, Mar. 30, 1887.]

B. O. Williams is gone! How many thoughts rush through the mind with this announcement; thoughts of the time when this beautiful city of Owosso was the hunting ground of the Indian; days when the brothers A. L. and B. O. Williams swam the waters of the Shiawassee river, bearing upon their shoulders skins of fur-bearing animals, often heavy with icicles, their only associates the rude Indians with whom they became fast friends; days when these brothers owned the entire ground on which Owosso stands-thence onward till

now Owosso beams forth a prosperous town with its 5,000 inhabitants, in the development of which he has been closely connected.

What can we say of him? A man of state-wide reputation in pioneer annals; known throughout the length and breadth of Shiawassee county; kind hearted, benevolent, generous, ever ready with sympathy for the afflicted and aid for the distressed; an honest, upright, public spirited citizen; a tender and affectionate husband and father; one whose robust form was seen daily upon our streets until paralysis fastened itself upon him and withdrew him from our daily sight-this was B. O. Williams.

Alfred L. and Benjamin Oliver Williams were the first two white settlers in Shiawassee county, and their names are known, not only throughout this county, but prominently in the state pioneer history. As was said on the occasion of the death of A. L. Williams, to write the history of one of these brothers would be to give in great part (at least their early days) the life of the other also; and to give a sketch of the life of these two brothers would be to give not only a history of the founding and early days of Owosso, but would comprise also a volume of Shiawassee county pioneer history and much of the pioneer days of the state of Michigan. Enough in the way of pioneer sketches and reminiscences given by B. O. Williams at pioneer meetings, both county and state, has been printed from time to time to make an interesting volume of pioneer history. Side by side in the large volume of Ensign's history of Shiawassee county stand the portraits of these two pioneer brothers, leading the list of biographical sketches, as the first two white settlers in Shiawassee county.

Mr. Williams was born in Concord Mass., Nov. 18, 1810. In the fall of 1815, Major Oliver Williams, father of A. L. and B. O., emigrated from Massachusetts to Detroit with his wife and nine children, and in 1819 he removed thence to Oakland county. In August, 1831, the sons, A. L. and B. O., set out from Pontiac with two assistants and a double team loaded with goods, and passing through the intervening wilderness came to the Shiawassee river at the point where the river is now crossed by the Chicago and Grand Trunk R. R., where A. L. had entered an eighty-acre tract of government land. Here they opened a trading post and soon after built the building extensively known as the "Shiawassee Exchange," a double house one and a half stories high, used as a dwelling and a storehouse, and afterwards as a tavern. In the summer of 1833 they purchased lands at "Che-bocwating" or the "Big Rapids" of the Shiawassee (Owosso), which was the first purchase of lands in the north half of the county. In the spring of 1837 the brothers located permanently on their Owosso lands, where they at once commenced extending and adding to the improvements which had been begun under their direction

in the fall of 1835. In this removal from their old trading post above, on the Shiawassee, they retained the "Shiawassee Exchange" property, which they sold the next year to the American Fur Company. Henceforth their home and their interests were in Owosso, a spot whose lovely location charmed them at first sight.

When the California gold excitement broke out the brothers went to the gold fields, remained two years, opening the first hill digging in California, returned to Michigan and again made the journey to California; leaving their interests there in charge of their brothers, Alpheus F. and James M. Williams, they returned to Owosso. The close affection and business trust between the two brothers through long years, having as it was expressed, "but one pocketbook between them" was touchingly beautiful.

B. O. Williams was very friendly and familiar with the Indians and learned to speak their language, which he never forgot in later years. In the spring of 1835 he, in company with his elder brother, Gardner D. Williams, of Saginaw, went to Washington in charge of a party of thirteen Saginaw Chippewa chiefs for the purpose of concluding a treaty by which the Indians should sell to the United States the tribal reservation granted them by the treaty of Saginaw in 1819. This negotiation was ultimately successful. The deputation remained about three weeks in Washington, and the whole journey consumed about two months; the means of traveling at that time being by stage and canal.

In 1838 Mr. Williams was married to Miss Sophia A. Smith, of Canandaigua, N. Y., a lady of lovely character, who endured the privations of a pioneer life with cheerfulness, and who has since borne the luxuries of a succeeding life of wealth and refinement with modesty and unostentation. Their first dwelling was on a now vacant lot on Oliver street, between the A. L. Williams and the Judge Gould places.

A contract for grubbing and clearing about forty miles of the line of the old "Northern Railroad" (from the center of Shiawassee county westward to Lyons, Ionia county) was taken by the brothers A. L. and B. O., at $248.50 per mile, and one half of the distance was sub-let by them to Messrs. Kipp & Moore, of Ionia. The work was commenced in November, 1838, and was completed in the summer of 1839, but resulted in loss to the contractors. In 1839 B. O., in company with Daniel Ball, took the contract to grade ten miles of the same road, eastward from Lyons, but only a part of this work was completed before the definite failure and abandonment of the project by the state.

When A. L. & B. O. resolved to try the experiment of mining on the Pacific slope, in 1850, they migrated thither, took up a claim in Nevada